Time for a phone upgrade

[Chronus]

I have a Blackberry Bold and a Nokia N82, the latter of which has come up for an upgrade from the phone company. My contract is done for the past couple of months and I'm pretty much waiting until October when the Nokia N900 internet tablet comes out as well as the Sony Ericsson Satio. If I don't go for a phone, I have the option of reducing my monthly bill by an amount as well.

The Blackberry takes care of multitasking: web browsing, messenger services, push email, divx/xvid viewing, mobi pocketbook reader, 16gb memory card etc. What it lacks is a good camera.

The Nokia N82 is my camera. I have no other, so I am a little wary of going to the excellent looking Nokia N900 (with an open source OS) as it is a slight downgrade in the camera department. It has the same 5MP camera but no xenon flash, only a dual LED flash. I am tempted as it just looks so good with it's multitasking capabilities, 256mb RAM, upto 1gb of application space, 32gb onboard storage, true desktop web-browsing with Flash and multiple pages open concurrently, big screen, touchscreen, but hardware keyboard if i need it, as I've never had a touchscreen before. I like the possibilities of doing computer geeky stuff if I want, installing things like Mame and DOS emulation etc. It has Skype and Messenger services integrated. If it has Push email it could even tempt me off the Blackberry (but that keyboard is great so I doubt it just yet!). I like that it has native Xvid and DivX support too. FLAC would be nice and I understand applications from the previous non-telephone tablet N800 and N810 are being ported over by the original makers, and most (if not all) applications will be free. The live updates of things like Twitter and Facebook (if you like that sort of thing) is pretty good but I'm sure other phones do that already. I found videos which show how it works and they look quite good:

3 videos of the N900

What do you think?

I went for the N82 as I liked the camera and the Sony Ericsson Satio sems to fit the bill. Sounds like a normal point and shoot Sony style camera with the latest version of Symbian touch (as seen on the N97) as well. The plus for me is that this has an active lens cover with both Xenon flash and LED (probably for video recording?). I'm a little wary of SE products at the moment as their quality seems to have dropped, but if this one proves to be as good as it sounds, it may well be the one to replace my N82. It does have obvious downsides like lower RAM than the N900, barely any onboard storage, and finally they're using microSD cards and not the M2s. I still don't like their proprietary port though. USB is much more convenient. I could use my spare Blackberry charger at work for both as it's USB and it also came with attachments for European and US power.

I await the reviews of the finalised phones ... who knows, I may not even bother upgrading!

What are everyone's thoughts on these phones coming out ? Anyone excited by any of them ?

(I've ignored most of the Samsung ones as they sadly have no lens cover on their cameras )

PS. please, no one tell me to get the iPhone, it's not quite right for me yet - no hardware keyboard, no mass storage mode, no hot swappable microSD card support, no native DivX/XviD support, I don't want iTunes on my computer ever again etc etc. As good as it is, it's just not for me

[Johnkaz]

I had an experience recently. I use my phone for ongoing business 20+ calls a day mostly handsfree whilst driving, I had an upgrade due on my contract and choose an LG 900 Arena, similar to an i phone (enter hoards of indignant iphone owners) I spent a whole day inputting numbers and music etc, I used this new device for the first day and consigned it back to the box (it's for sale if anybody is interested). It is so complicated, six actions to do something simple like pick up messages, and texting forget it. I have gone back to using my good old Nokia 6300 it does all I need quickly and easily.

Believe me I am not a technophobe but it has all got silly. Am I a voice in the dark or is this common.

So my advice get something tactile, compact and keep it simple no smartphones.

Cheers

Johnkaz.

[tomhorn]

I am going Android for my next phone ... assuming AT&T ever gets around to releasing one ...

[dluddy]

I'm selling my Blackberry Storm for Verizon networks if interested....

[jfreeman420]

The only phones I have ever been happy with is Nokia and Samsung. I am due for an upgrade as well and the reviews for the Samsung Solstice are very good. That will be my next phone probably next week. This will be my fourth Samsung.

I had one Sony Ericcson a while ago and it was a piece of crap I hope they stepped up their game.

LG and Motorola are also at the bottom of my list.

[Tribal]

go for a iphone or maybe the n900

[Chronus]

go for a iphone or maybe the n900

As I said, an iPhone isn't for me for a number of reasons. Once they fix up those issues I will be happy to get one

The N900 looks really good to me though. The SE Satio is for photos, as the Blackberry does everything I want it to already. Of course the N900 will do more and has a better camera though.

[Chronus]

I'm selling my Blackberry Storm for Verizon networks if interested....

I'm in the UK, probably won'twork and I don't really want to replace the Bold... The Storm II sounds good though, How have you found the Storm so far?

[dluddy]

Storm one is a good device but the V1 software is not ready for primetime IMO. For the casual user it is probably fine but I found the touch keyboard too difficult and the phone reception is worse than my curve...

[Chronus]

Storm one is a good device but the V1 software is not ready for primetime IMO. For the casual user it is probably fine but I found the touch keyboard too difficult and the phone reception is worse than my curve...

Interesting. A friend had one (but then his sister wanted it and he gave it to her and went back to his Bold) and I had a try out on it. Having never used touchscreens before I thought the typing was surprisingly quick without using predictive text. I picked it up within seconds and once I realised I have to push down to register, it was no problem at all

I hear there are different types of touchscreens.. resistive (I've seen my former manager with a HTC and using his stylus all the time but he loved it, being the techie he is) and capacitive (though I can't imagine how someone like Nanuq could use that out in the cold!). From what I understand, you don't press on the capacitive ones, which would probably annoy me a little, having been used to pushing buttons on a keyboard or keypad!

Edited September 20, 2009 by Chronus

[Chronus]

Having said that, I heard the Storm II has changed the keyboard... I wonder how that one will turn out ?

I hear they've added Wi-Fi now.. strangely missing from the first iteration. Sometimes you have to wonder if all companies put out these first generation devices with limited functionality (eg. no WiFi, or MMS/bluetooth stereo, cut/paste on iPhone etc) due to limited time to test and bring to market, relying on firmware updates?

Also, I wonder if they'll add DivX/XviD on the Storm II. I really like it on the Bold, no botheration with converting to mp4 etc like for the N82

Edited September 20, 2009 by Chronus

[fotoman]

i've had palm, blackberries, windows mobile the full and the dumb down version

i SWEAR by the iphone, if you jailbreak it, it can multitask, do alllll kinds of stuff. I think its still one of hte most powerful by raw processor and ram.

the keyboard takes gettign used to and i swore i wouldn't get one till i could get a real keyboard.

Its still not AS easy to type long emails as the blackbery 7200 models were, but, it works fine. The APPS, there are so many developers, anything you can think of has been made into an app and you can get most for a dollar, expensive ones like tom tom - you search the internet for ones that "fell off the truck "

i could likley give up an eye or a toe before someone took my iphone.

and like is aid - i ws a MODERATOR of a Palm phone forum in 2002, i had like 4 different palm phones, that was when they dominated - then, blackberry, had 3 of those i think. 2 WM

iphone puts them all to shame.

haven't tried the android phone yet - but, its like when the iphone first came out -it takes awhile to build the developer base to have apps.

Iphone is already up and rocking.

[Chronus]

i've had palm, blackberries, windows mobile the full and the dumb down version

i SWEAR by the iphone, if you jailbreak it, it can multitask, do alllll kinds of stuff. I think its still one of hte most powerful by raw processor and ram.

the keyboard takes gettign used to and i swore i wouldn't get one till i could get a real keyboard.

Its still not AS easy to type long emails as the blackbery 7200 models were, but, it works fine. The APPS, there are so many developers, anything you can think of has been made into an app and you can get most for a dollar, expensive ones like tom tom - you search the internet for ones that "fell off the truck "

i could likley give up an eye or a toe before someone took my iphone.

and like is aid - i ws a MODERATOR of a Palm phone forum in 2002, i had like 4 different palm phones, that was when they dominated - then, blackberry, had 3 of those i think. 2 WM

iphone puts them all to shame.

haven't tried the android phone yet - but, its like when the iphone first came out -it takes awhile to build the developer base to have apps.

Iphone is already up and rocking.

I tried my sister's fiance's iPhone today, and my fingers are too big or something... I typed a lot more easily on the Storm than on there. He said his main problem is the battery running out too quickly as he uses it for GPS in his car, so he has to charge it up a lot. The browser was nice - but then I have no experience of browsing on any other touchscreen device. I know the new N900 has built-in Flash support though in it's Mozilla browser. One thing I asked him was if there is a button to go to the next or previous page in an eBook reader but he hasn't installed one, so I have no idea. I can't imagine that would be much fun by swiping. Speaking of swiping, it wasn't as responsive as I had heard from websites like engadget, and it's only 6 months old. Perhaps that's just a trait of all touchscreen phones?

I looked at it before getting the Bold and it just misses things that I need to have, like the memory card, removeable battery, mass storage mode (I don't want iTunes again!). I'm sure there must be a bluetooth keyboard out by now, and I've heard the 3GS has TV out finally, which is great! I've been using that on my N82 a lot for a while now, and it's just great

Don't forget, it's the N82 that it'll replace, and even taking a step back from xenon to dual LED flash is my major gripe with the N900... I like that most Linux programs will work (or be easily ported to) on the Linux-based Maemo OS, it's the next version of the OS in the N800 and N810 Internet Tablets. The multi-tasking doesn't require jailbreaking - I've read that the new iPhone OS has blocked off all the methods of jailbreaking, and also voids the warranty if done, so I'm not sure about that.

By the way, the N900 has the same processor, RAM (256mb) and graphics accelerator as the 3GS, the main difference in storage being the 1gb on-board application storage (but if it's like previous Nokias, you may be able to install on memory card as well, like I did with my Garmin GPS) as well as support for the upcoming 32gb microSD cards which increases the storage to 64gb. And I'll be able to play MAME and things like Transport Tycoon, Homeworld, etc

I'm waiting reviews of it and the Sony Ericsson...

iPhone related news, is there any way to play DivX or XviD yet?

PS. the phone company have offered me things like the Samsung Jet and SE W995 but I'm definitely not taking those! Anyone seen the new 1ghz Snapdragon processors in the WinMobile phones? I've avoided Windows Mobile for no reason at all... probably cos it's Windows!

[Chronus]

i've had palm, blackberries, windows mobile the full and the dumb down version

and like is aid - i ws a MODERATOR of a Palm phone forum in 2002, i had like 4 different palm phones, that was when they dominated - then, blackberry, had 3 of those i think. 2 WM

Forgot to say, never used Palm but the video demos I've seen of the WebOS looks good. Pity it's locked at 8gb with no SD card support, and no good camera for what I want...

Never used Windows Mobile, and I have an illogical aversion to having Windows on my phone, no idea why!

Androis and LinuxMobile sound promising. Linux-based Maemo (open source like the previous two) allow you to program in C, maybe I should dust off my C knowledge for some practice! Been using too much VB and SQL nowadays

[Chronus]

Iphone is already up and rocking.

Finally, I'm hoping their next release is good. I'm hoping they add the things I want on it I may even ignore the lack of the physical keyboard if they add in all the other things